Friday, June 12, 2009

A Neat Trick For Painting On Rainy Days

If you read my last post, you know that I have a couple of Hellhounds that I wanted to get painted this week. Problem is, the weather's been wet here. I was able to get the gray undercoat done yesterday, but then the thunderstorms rolled in overnight, and it continued to rain all day. If you've ever tried to use an airbrush in the garage on a wet day, you know that the paint just pools on the model and never dries.

Which was frustrating, because if I was going to get my Hellhounds minimally painted for the tourney, I had to get the base color coat on today. So that I could dip them and let the floor wax dry overnight. For reasons of marital continuance, I couldn't use the airbrush in the house. So I came up with neat solution that I thought I'd share with you.

I dried the models in my car.

Yep, that's it. You just start up your car and crank up the air conditioning to full blast. The AC will suck all the moisture out of the air in the car. Once you've finished applying a coat of color, just lay the models in a shoebox lid or some other tray on the front seat and wait. Your model will be dry in 5-10 minutes and ready for the next coat. While you're waiting you can even give your kid wagon rides in the driveway. :)

IDIOT WARNING: Running a car in the garage with the door closed is a sure way to die. So don't do it. I don't want to hear about some kid in Idaho who asphyxiated himself priming the Space Marines from his new Assault on Black Reach set after reading this. So make sure you open all the doors and windows in your garage *before* you start the car. Or better yet, move the car out of the garage and into the driveway first.